Methods of the Explanation of the Bible Cover Image

ბიბლიის განმარტების მეთოდები
Methods of the Explanation of the Bible

Author(s): Eliso Kalandarishvili
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: ლიტერატურის ინსტიტუტის გამომცემლობა
Keywords: Bible; allegorical method; prophetic explanation; Georgian spiritual literature;

Summary/Abstract: Among the methods of the explanations of the Bible, which have been elaborated by the clergy for centuries, the most distinguishing is Allegorical Method. It has been established in the Alexandrian School. Palestine was the first country where there were followers who were trying to learn the covert conceptions of the text of the Bible. Although, its final formations are connected with the name of Paul the Disciple. He established the Christian-Allegorical method of explanations of the Bible and also created its terminology. The most important type of an Allegorical explanation is Prophetic Explanation. This is an attempt of searching the indications for the future occurrences. For example: arrival of Messiah, resurrection of deceased, establishment of heavenly kingdom by Christ and etc. Many of the Bible parts are explained as prophesy about the church. This method of an explanation of Bible is also well known for Georgian spiritual literature. All the terms that are used by the followers of this method are well known for our writers. The most developed tendency is the one, which is in accordance with the fact that all the occurrences or events of “New Testament” are predicted in “Old Testament”. This way, the events of the Divine History is connected to Christ and his epoch. Allegory connects two great worlds with each other. In old Georgian translations of “New Testament” there are preserved those terminological details, which allows us to observe the processes of Christian Theology – formation of Theological terms, exegetics, as an interpretation of the letter of the text of divine, formation of theological bases. This proves that translation skills in working for the public Georgian erudite, their principles were based not only on knowing Greek language perfectly, but understanding Christian Theology with its esthetic-theory issues. Palestinian rabbis used to separate indirect, non-literal interpretations of the Bibl in different types. According to Philon’s idea, there are two main types of allegorical interpretations: physical and ethical. Both of them present the types of allegory and it is supported by the examples from philosophical researches, therefore allegorical interpretation is equal to the philosophical interpretation. By the influence of Philon, Climent from Alexandria turned the philosophical interpretation into Christian side and also added four types of “New Testament” which is know as a term of “Allegory”. Climent is using other equal words for the term “Allegory”. But at last Climent separates the interpretation of Holy Scripture into two classes: direct and allegorical, whereas allegorical into three classes: moral, physical and theological. It has to be pointed out that these ideas of Middle Age theologians were shared by Dante Alighieri and he also made all these for the fundament of his “Divine Comedy”.

  • Issue Year: 2009
  • Issue No: 10
  • Page Range: 100-111
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Georgian